Film
By Justin Marble. Waiting for Superman. Directed by Davis Guggenheim. At Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square Cinema through October. The new documentary from Davis Guggenheim, who previously directed An Inconvenient Truth, focuses on the slipping standards and gaping flaws in the American education system. Many have noted that test scores in America are well…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Steamboat Bill Jr. is my personal favorite among Buster Keaton’s classic silent comedies, and the image (above) of Buster holding an upturned umbrella (this is a publicity still—in the movie he wields the useless brolly during a rampaging storm) is one of the movie’s greatest sight gags, an indelible image of the…
Read MoreBy Justin Marble August 4, “Best of the Oughts” at the Brattle: Putting together a list of the best films of the decade is quite difficult, and putting together a film series might be even tougher. But the Brattle appears to have done a good job, pulling in a mix of Hollywood and indie films…
Read MoreThe remake follows the same plot as the 1984 original, but the new version is more like watching a bunch of twelve-year-old kids in a steel cage death match. Reviewed by Tom Samph In a time when baby-faced Michael Cera and whiny John Mayer are cultural icons, Americans still can’t get enough blood and guts.…
Read MoreBy Justin Marble June 11–17, Grindhouse films at The Brattle: Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s 2007 double feature reignited interest in the campy, cheap, and cheesy B-movies of the grindhouse era. These highly-enjoyable and ridiculous films are an experience unto themselves. With esteemed titles like Black Cobra, Chained Heat, Lady Terminator, and Thrill of the…
Read MoreAnd why [are] men bound beneath the heavens in a reptile form/ A worm of sixty winters creeping on the dusky ground? — Tiriel, William Blake Metropolis. Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Lang and Thea Von Harbou. With Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Erwin Biswanger, Theodor Loos, Fritz Rasp, and Heinrich…
Read Moreby Justin Marble May 7, “The Exploding Girl” at Kendall Square Cinema: Zoe Kazan, the granddaughter of famous film director Elia Kazan, won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her portrayal of Zoe, a young college student who returns home for spring break. While there, her feelings alternate between her longtime,…
Read MoreBy J. R. Carroll Coming Attractions in Jazz for April 2010 unfortunately was washed away by the Waters of March (“It’s the mud, it’s the mud”), but we couldn’t let this year’s Jazz Week slip by without highlighting a few of the numerous events taking place in the Boston metro area from Friday, April 23,…
Read MoreBy Justin Marble April 4–5, Kurosawa at the Brattle: Every theater in town is screening Kurosawa at some point this month, but my recommendation is for the Brattle on the 4th and 5th for one reason: “Red Beard.” Most everybody has at least heard of Kurosawa films like “Yojimbo,” “Throne of Blood,” “Kagemusha,” and “Ran,”…
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Arts Remembrance: In Memoriam — Tom Stoppard